Scoonie Penn natural for Ohio State player development job

Beloved former Ohio State point guard Scoonie Penn was recently hired as the program's director of player development.

Scoonie Penn yells instructions during a recent practice at the Schottenstein Center practice court for the Scarlet and Gray alumni team playing in The Basketball Tournament this summer. Penn was hired to director of player development for the men's basketball team at OSU.(Photo: Rob McCurdy/USAToday Network-Ohio)

"The crazy thing is he's been doing it," Lauderdale said, a center who last played basketball at Ohio State in 2011.

Now Penn, the popular former Buckeye point guard, will get a title and salary to do the job. Incoming coach Chris Holtmann recently hired Penn as the director of player development.

"It’s natural. I’ve been a coach my whole life. That’s how I felt as a ballplayer, that I was a coach," he said after leading a practice of largely Ohio State alumni as they were getting ready to play in The Basketball Tournament where the winning squad gets to split $2 million.

Penn spent just two seasons at Ohio State after transferring to Columbus from Boston College, but he was a Big Ten Player of the Year and an All-American who helped the Buckeyes to a Final Four berth in 1999.

"We are really excited about Scoonie being a part of the staff," Holtmann said in a release. "All of Buckeye Nation will know that he is one of the all-time great players and ambassadors of our program. His connection to the past and present players is impressive and something I was looking for in this position."

Penn will serve as a mentor to current players and a liaison to alumni as well as run Ohio State's basketball camps and oversee community outreach programs.

"Scoon really deserves this job with all the hard work he’s put in," former Ohio State All-American Jared Sullinger said. "He’s ready to take the bull by the horns and get this thing going. He’s been doing it for more than a minute with player development, but now he gets to do it at a higher level, so he’s excited."

Since leaving Ohio State in 2000, Penn was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the second round, but played his entire 11-year career overseas in Italy, Croatia and Greece, averaging 11.4 points and 2.8 assists. However, in the offseason he was a frequent visitor and participant at Ohio State open gyms and always around the program.

The Massachusetts native and his wife Nancy, son Dominiq, and daughters Precious, Jaidien and Jenesis even settled in central Ohio.

"We’ve known Scoonie since we were freshmen," Lauderdale said. "He’s one of the guys who has been talking to us and mentoring us since Day 1.

"He’s been in our ear giving us advice and keeping us straight and saying if we need anything, to talk to him. He’s been doing that for us."

And now he'll get the chance to do it officially.

"It was the next step," Penn said. "It should have happened earlier, but I wanted to be involved with my kids more and had things I wanted to take care of."

Penn brings credibility as a former player. At Ohio State he averaged 16.3 points and 4.1 rebounds, ranking 46th on the all-time OSU scoring list with 1,076 points in just two years. His 123 points scored in the NCAA Tournament is seventh-best in program history. He also has an outgoing personality that enables him to make personal connections.

"It’s a perfect fit for him," Lauderdale said. "I think it’s a great addition to the Ohio State program, and I think guys will really benefit from it as we did."

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The Scarlet and Gray, a team of mostly Ohio State alums and coached by Scoonie Penn, will play this weekend in The Basketball Tournament, a 64-team NCAA-style tournament that will give $2 million to the winners. The group practiced Thursday.
Rob McCurdy/USA Today Network-Ohio